by Iowa's Ted Remington



We knew “The Point” was predictable, but even we’re surprised at how closely Mark Hyman has followed RNC talking points.

A few days ago, we wondered aloud how Hyman would address the
disconnect between the Republican platform and the headline speakers at
the convention in New York. Perhaps, we mused, Hyman would try to
characterize it as somehow showing the “big tent” that is the
Republican Party.

And right on cue, Hyman did just that. Kicking off a recent editorial
with the statement that by “any measure” Bush is the most conservative
president in 40 years and Kerry is the most liberal Democratic nominee
in recent memory (a pronouncement that seems to be trotted out every
four years about whoever happens to be the Democratic nominee), Hyman
went to an interview with “moderate” Governor Robert Ehrlich of
Maryland, who waxed rhapsodic about the contest of ideas every four
years. Queried by Hyman about the “spectrum of philosophies” on display
in New York, Ehrlich said that it was good for the party and
demonstrated that the GOP has (you guessed it ) “a larger tent” than
the Democrats. When asked how the GOP (or, as it was continually
referred to throughout Hyman’s editorial, simply “the party”) had
changed in the last 20 years, Ehrlich said (with a straight face) that
it had become the party of “Main Street rather than Wall Street.”

Oh, really? Well, we know that last statement runs counter to all facts available to us. As we noted last week, a recent CBO study
showed that the Bush tax policies shift the tax burden from the richest
segment of society to the middle class. Add to this the loss of a
million jobs, the rise in those without health insurance, the revoking
of overtime pay, the diminishment of veterans’ benefits, and the
sending of more than a 100,000 troops to fight and die in Iraq (almost
none of whom, we’re guessing, are the sons and daughters of Wall Street
execs), and you have an out and out war on Main Street America. For
more on the specifics of the Bush administration’s attacks on the
middle class, see this collection of articles collected by Movingideas.org or the excellent site by California Congressman George Miller.

As Thomas Frank argues in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas,
the GOP wins votes from “Main Street” not by championing policies that
help average Americans, but by claiming to represent the moral values
of those who live in Anytown, U.S.A.  Focusing on issues such as gay
marriage, abortion, prayer in schools, gun control, and the like,
Republicans appeal to the moderate to conservative morals of many
working class Americans. But despite the claims of those on both the
left and the right who focus on these specific issues, the person who
occupies the White House is unlikely to dramatically shift the current
uneasy consensus on these issues one way or the other. The issues get
people riled up, but they don’t have the impact on the daily lives of
individuals that broader issues such as tax policy, health care, labor
law, and education do. The misdirection allows the GOP to claim to
represent Main Street while practicing economic and social policies
that ensure that its storefronts are boarded up, its potholes aren’t
fixed, and people wander up and down its length looking in vain for a
well-paying job.

And the spectacle in New York is a case in point. Despite Hyman’s
assertion that a “spectrum” of philosophies are on display at the GOP
convention, a glance at the primetime list of speakers (the only ones
who get seen on any TV channel beyond C-SPAN) shows how distorted a
picture the country is getting: Giuliani, Schwartzenegger, McCain,
Pataki . . . not a true Bush conservative in the bunch. The only member
of the administration to speak (with the exception of the president and
vice-president themselves) is Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, in the
obligatory attempt to be ethnically diverse.

So Hyman and Ehrlich combine forces to lie both about the GOP’s
devotion to Main Street America and about its “broad spectrum” of
values. But we can add to this list of insults on journalistic
integrity the fact that Hyman again plays it both ways. As we’ve noted
several times in the past, Hyman likes to flip-flop between being a
“commentator” and playing a journalist. In Boston, he was exclusively
the former, offering no coverage of the proceedings of the Democratic
convention and giving us instead personal attacks on Kerry and other
assorted perceived enemies. In New York, Hyman not only talks about the
convention itself, but uses his “commentary” slot to interview a major
Republican politician, giving him free reign to spout the party line.
Of course, Hyman usually does this himself, but it’s at least in the
guise of editorial commentary. The latest “Point” masquerades as an
interview, but in essence is a free 60-second national ad for the RNC.

Maybe “The Point” will get in trouble with the FCC for violating the equal time regulation.